3 Digital Marketing Predictions for 2019

The new year is well underway, and hopefully you made digital marketing part of your winery’s priorities for 2019. WineDirect and Modern Digital want to unveil some predictions for this year, and offer insight on how you can take action on these expected trends starting today. Our goal is to help you get your digital marketing one step ahead of the competition.

1. Mobile audiences will matter more than ever.

Have you seen what your website looks like on a mobile device? If not, stop reading and look now. If this was the first time to your site, would you be able to navigate to the desired action you have for your audience? Would you be able to make an online purchase or learn about your wine club? Is there an obtrusive pop-up? Are the visual elements formatted for mobile? Are visitors easily able to see all the wines you offer? Do you list upcoming events? Does the page load very slowly? Studies have shown that more than 75% of internet users visit online retail stores on their phones: give them the same quality experience with your brand that they would get on the desktop version or in your tasting room.

2. Social channels will emerge as an opportunity to extend online experiences.

Don’t forget that online experiences go beyond your website and extend to social media. Get your brand’s message in front of your key demographics there too. Facebook, Instagram and other social channels offer wineries a platform for building communities, sharing event information, getting customer feedback, and even selling wine. You don’t need to use any media budget – though you certainly could run ads to drive DTC ecommerce sales. The organic efforts on these channels will reach your existing followers, letting them know about products they might not be aware of or enticing them to plan a trip to your tasting room for an event.

3. Data will offer you the ability to guide audience targeting and your creative process.

With the emergence of new website analytics and online data sources, your winery doesn’t need to guess where your audience is or what they are doing online. Free website analytics tools, such as Google Analytics, give you insights into which channels your website visitors are coming from, which pages they are consuming the most (i.e. they loved that blog post about your bottling process!), and what demographics are making the most purchases through your online store. Taking it further, wineries that use DTC software like WineDirect can deeply understand purchasing data, which you can use to inform your digital marketing strategies in the future. You should be running email campaigns, communicating regularly with your subscribers at least monthly. If that’s the case, your email service provider data can tell you the open rates of each of your emails and what your readers want to hear more about. Run an A/B test, where you split your email list, and send one message to Audience A and a different message to Audience B, to see which message works best. This could even inform how your tasting room team talks about your wines and club offerings. Let the data work for you and creatively utilize it in all aspects of your business.

So, what can you do today to ensure your digital marketing efforts are ready the year ahead? Don’t ignore the mobile audience and their desired experience. Go against conformity and reach your audience beyond just your website – on social media. Use the data at your fingertips to make educated decisions to creatively improve your digital marketing strategy.

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